When I read the UN Security Council’s condemnation of the Syrian massacre, which was too little and too late: “Such outrageous use of force against civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government under United Nations Security Council Resolutions.” Immediately it came to my mind after reading this statement: Where was the stern condemnation by the UN when over 10,000 rockets and mortars were raining down on Israeli civilians in the Negev? Wasn’t that also an outrageous use of force?

It is a well-known fact that President Bashar Assad has been slaughtering his own citizens in the streets of Syria for many months. However, it is only now, after gruesome photographs of the massacre in Houla have been released, that many world leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are publicly criticizing Assad. The response to the photos demonstrates the power that journalism has in Western democratic countries.

Perhaps the most telling of the responses to the photographs came this week from Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who insisted that “both sides” in Syria’s conflict were responsible for the death toll. He went on to say that the exact details of the killings in Syria were unclear, and that we should therefore not be so quick to denounce Assad. As opposed to other responses, the photos from the massacre had little effect on Russia’s pseudo-democracy.